Can OpenStack Overcome Its Cloudy Climate?

Just when you were thinking the enterprise cloud picture might be getting a bit clearer, along comes political in-fighting about whose cloud is more open and which will meet the performance standards needed for enterprise-class cloud computing.

Take OpenStack for instance. Despite its many supporters, the open source cloud platform is certainly not without its share of contrarians as well. One prominent example comes from recently added member VMware, which prior to its acquisition of startup Nicira bad-mouthed OpenStack as an "ugly sister" to vCloud (the other "ugly sisters" being Citrix-led CloudStack and Eucalyptus).

The dissent over OpenStack has only intensified since VMware jumped on board. With OpenStack initially seen as an open alternative to VMware's proprietary dominance over data center virtualization and what would eventually turn into proprietary clouds, some aren't exactly happy about VMware's participation in the open source cloud platform.

"Subduing OpenStack is exactly what VMware did by joining the foundation," contends Boris Renski, EVP of cloud startup Mirantis and a Gold Member of OpenStack. "Every enterprise considering OpenStack that we ever encountered at Mirantis was primarily interested in OpenStack as an open alternative to proprietary VMware."

Enterprises had been viewing OpenStack as a substitute for VMware, but "with VMware in the OpenStack foundation, every enterprise buyer will rightfully ask the question: 'If OpenStack is not competing with VMware, then what the hell is OpenStack?,'" Renski continues.